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Ellipsis is the official blog of Autodesk's Technical Evangelist Team. We will discuss all things design and manufacturing related with a focus on industries such as automotive and transportation, consumer products, industrial machinery and building product manufacturing and fabrication. We also have resident experts who will blog about specific product developments in CAD, Simulation, Industrial Design and Data Management.
We look forward to providing you, our user community, with the most relevant and up to date developments in our industry, and hopefully with information that will assist you in doing your job better, faster, and more precisely.
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Consolidated list of submitted engineering sites
April 26, 2006 09:00 AMby Kevin SchneiderEngineering Sites
http://www.eng-tips.com/
http://www.efunda.com/home.cfm
http://www.i-boards.com/bnp/assem/
http://www.engineering.com/content/index.jsp
http://www.engineersedge.com/
http://www.designaids.com
http://www.3dcadtips.com
http://www.solitaryway.com/calvin/cb_rules.htm
http://store.sae.org/ea/earef.htm
http://store.sae.org/ea/earef.htm
http://www.docwalt.com
http://www.engineering.com/content/index.jsp?disciplineID=mechanical
http://www.mcadonline.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
http://www.engineersedge.com/Calulators_Online.shtml
http://store.sae.org/ea
http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html?skipIntro=1 http://www.sae.org/misc/engineering_aids_referee_materials.htm
http://www.business.com/directory
http://www.engineeringsights.org
http://www.devicelink.com/links/engineering.html
http://www.fhbrundle.com/iron.ht http://www.hanleyinnovations.com
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/Algebra.html
http://www.efunda.com/home.cfm
http://www.nookindustries.com/Engineering/Calculators.cfm#UnitConversion
http://engr.calvin.edu/Prospective/sites.htm
http://www.careermarketplace.com/engineering.htm
http://64.7.93.99
http://www.engsoftwarecenter.com/ http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/sci15.00.00
http://www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators.html
http://www.memagazine.org/index.html
http://sel.gsfc.nasa.gov
http://www.freebyte.com/cad/cad.htm
http://www2.umassd.edu/SECenter/SEResearch.html
http://updates.cadregister.com/updates.asp?tinid=f9106dff7c40b875d6412a5d6097c706
http://www.coade.com/index.asp http://www.steelforge.com
http://www.softgenetics.com
http://www.engnetglobal.com
http://www.designnews.com/article/CA625555.html?industryid=22203
http://www.edochelp.com/Glossary/glossary.html
http://www.pro-researcher.co.uk
http://standards.ieee.org/standardspress
http://www.netguru.com
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=76
http://www.ides.com
http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus
http://www.shipconstructor.com/Default.htm
http://www.engineers.com/software/software.htm http://www.globalspec.com/?frmtrk=affiliate&kbid=1149&img=logo468x60.gif
http://www.engineeringedu.com
http://www.diracdelta.co.uk
http://www.haestad.com
http://ww.pennnet.com
http://www.engineeringalley.com
http://www.science-search.org
http://www.wateronline.com/content/homepage/default.asp
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Logon/ResourceBarrier
http://www.unitconversion.org
http://www.trda.org
http://www.mcmaster.com
http://www.ohyeahcad.com/catalog/login.php?osCsid=aa4f001c01dbc0ff96511df6762f68dd
http://partsv4.web2cad.de/PowerPartsOnWeb
http://www.tpwksummary.com
RSS Feeds
http://www.mcadforums.com/forums/rss-news.php
http://www.mcadforums.com/forums/rss.php
http://floatingpoint.typepad.com/pr_marketing_and_the_busi/
http://cadinsider.typepad.com/my_weblog/
http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/files/blog/kevin/
http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/files/blog/amy/
http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/files/blog/grant/
http://lynn.blogs.com/lynn_allens_blog/
http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/files/blog/nate/
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/
http://dwf.blogs.com/beyond_the_paper/
http://www.cadwire.net/news/?Industry=Mech
http://www.cadinfo.net/news/default.asp
Thanks to those that contributed. You know how you are!
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Inventor Best Practices - Sketch
April 25, 2006 08:01 AMby Kevin Schneider
The newsgroup has a great thread on best practices. I am collecting the very best and adding some that I have collected from other sources over the years. All week I will be posting the collected lists here!
Consider these as guidelines and make your own decision on if these work for you or your company.
So to start here are some good sketch best practices.
1. Project the part origin or some other RELIABLE and LOGICAL geometry into each new sketch and reference new sketch geometry to it.
2. Sketches should be fully constrained and related to the sketch origin. Avoid using the fix constraint, it makes the sketch difficult to edit by another user.
3. Apply sketch constraints and dimensions carefully and logically so that the sketch geometry will change in a predictable manner when a dimension is edited.
4. Avoid placing fillets and chamfers in sketches. If possible, make them the last thing added to the part. Only add them earlier if there is a functional necessity.
5. Use construction lines to make sketch relationships easier to analyze.
6. Use cross part sketches only for strategic relationships. These are powerful in creating associativity across parts but can add complexity to making changes in your design.
7. Use silhouettes only when absolutely necessary. These are highly depended on the sketch plane and its orientation to the source geometry. Large changes can have unexpected results.
8. Turn off “show constraints” when done. The visibility setting of constraints is remembered and you might surprise someone when they go edit a model of yours, activate a sketch and all the constraints appear needlessly.
9. When importing DXF and DWG (remember you can copy and paste in R11) data use the Auto dimension command. Uncheck the dimension optional and then press the apply button until the number of constraints needed stops changing. You might need to click apply three times for this to happen. Now you should have a much better constrained sketch to start with and need fewer dimensions to finish fully constraining you sketch.
10. Less is more. Don't overload a sketch too much. Think 20 sketch lines and 3 to 10 dimensions per sketch. This helps break the model up into manageable pieces and makes editing the design easier.
1 Comment | Add CommentIn Ellipsis > All
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Decision support tools
April 20, 2006 06:00 AMby Kevin Schneider
Triz 40
Triz40 is a interesting set of principles that considers engineering problems and suggests solutions based on their structure. Having used QFD in the past I find these tools fascinating from their website:
Technical systems evolve towards the increase of ideality by OVERCOMING CONTRADICTIONS, mostly with minimal introduction of resources.
Most of the innovations are transpositions of KNOWN SOUTIONS in other fields.
If you manage a design process or engineering team this is yet another tool to help you dissect and come up with solutions to engineering challenges.
Ok so the Russian to English trnaslation is a little rough, it is still a fascinating way to look at problems - and after all that's what is important.
For more reading check out the 40 Triz principles.
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Inventor 11 Tip - Styles and last used vs object default
April 19, 2006 06:00 AMby Kevin SchneiderWhen create a drawing everyone wants to work a little different.
Some users have a large number of styles that predefine commonly used formatting. When working this way you may want the annotation commands to remember the last used style rather than always defaulting to the style defined by the object default in the standard.
Inventor 11 can now allow you to do this
From the Tools menu choose Application Options and then switch to the Drawing Tab.
There are two options, smack in the middle of the dialog that control how styles work.
If you change the default to by last used, the annotation commands will remember the last used style the next time you start the annotation command again. For those of you working with many style you know that will save you hundreds of picks when finishing a complex drawing.
0 Comment | Add CommentIn Ellipsis > Tips
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Global economy and creative/enginerring jobs
April 18, 2006 06:00 AMby Kevin SchneiderGlobal economy and creative/engineering jobs
The Autodesk Manufacturing Division maintains development offices around the world
Cambridge - England
Roanne - France
Munich - Germany
Elzach - Germany
Decin - Czech Republic
Shanghai - China
Singapore
Toronto - Canada
Novi - Michigan
Waltham - Massachusetts
Portland - Oregon
While some cynics would have you believe that we are just following the outsourcing fad, we feel that this wide range of experiences and talent lets us develop some of the best software around. As a person interested in the business of software, engineering and innovation I recently read an book on the subject. While the ideas are controversial, I think that the perspectives are healthy in the debate about global economy and how American companies can compete.
If you too are interested in the topic you can find the book here at Amazon.
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FAQ on x64
April 17, 2006 04:49 PMby Kevin SchneiderMicrosoft has a good selection of resources on x64. I get frequent questions about x64 and, now, with Invetor 11 supporting 4gb of memory if run on Windows xp pro 64-bit eddition the questions keep rolling in.
check out the faq here.
0 Comment | Add CommentIn Ellipsis > Hardware
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Inventor 11 Tip - Use Assembly BOM to edit Materials
April 17, 2006 04:12 PMby Kevin SchneiderWant to edit materials quickly?
Open an Inventor 11 assembly and bring up the BOM editor.
Right mouse click over the column headers and choose Runtime Column Customization (great name huh?).
A pane should appear where you can scroll through available properties to add to the BOM editor.
From this pane, scroll down to Material and then drag it to the location in the header where you want the column to be.
Go ahead and close the column customization pane.
You should now be able to click in any material cell and get a combo box to select the material you want to assign to each component.
Rows that appear in gray are read only and you can not edit them.
4 Comments | Add CommentIn Ellipsis > Tips
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What industry sites do you review every day?
April 14, 2006 08:48 AMby Kevin SchneiderSend me the sites you review everyday. Whether it is industry news, CAD news, engineering sites, I'm interested in consolidating a good list of informative sites that you find interesting.
Send ideas to kevin.schneider@autodesk-nospam-.com (remove the -nospam-)
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Trip - EMEA Tech-camp 06
April 11, 2006 02:36 PMby Kevin SchneiderLast week, I was fortunate to attend a week long event where EMEA held their annual tech-camp to train Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions distributors and reseller technical sales teams. EMEA stands for the Autodesk sales teams in Europe Middle East, and Affrica. The event was in the Salzburg Congress center in Salzburg Austria. Attendees spent Tuesday listening to a full day of main-stage presentations that included:
Opening - Mozart Music
Jordi Portella - Welcome and event objectives
Larry Peck - Manufacturing division overview and Functional design vision
Eric Strassheim -AutoCAD based solutions
Break
Simon Bosley, Pete Lord and Kevin Schneider - 11 reasons why Inventor is the best choice
Brian Mathews - DWF Solutions
Brian Roepke - Data management Solutions
Lynn Alen - Demo skills
Jordi Portella -Wrap up
An unprecedented 679 attendees arrived representing all corners of the EMEA region. During the evening party this group set a new record and consumed 500 liters of beer in 45 minutes!
After the main-stage events the teams were separated into 5 language tracks:
- English
- German
- French
- Italian
- Spanish
Each track was run by the appropriate regional AE's and covered the full suite of products and sales tools that make up the MSD solution in this year's launch.
I took a little time to see the city as well. It a great city and I suggest spending some time there should you get the chance.
All in All a great event!
Images:
The crowd
Jordi starts the event
Larry on the division and functional design
Eric on MSD AutoCAD Solutions
Simon and the 11 reasons Inventor is the best choice
Pete and the lebovac
Inventor 11 Demo Time
Brian and DWF Solutions
Brian and Data Management
Lynn's Demo Skilz
Partner booths
Dinner With the some of the EMEA team
Looking forward to next year!
0 Comment | Add CommentIn Ellipsis > Travel
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Inventor 11 tip - Measure Minimum Distance
April 11, 2006 10:16 AMby Kevin SchneiderAutodesk Inventor 11's measure has been enhanced to allow you to measure the minimum distance between parts or sub assemblies in addition to the previous capability of measuring the minimum distance between faces edges.
Start the measure command in an assembly. To measure minimum distance use the filter drop down menu that is new for Inventor 11.
From top to bottom the filters are:
Component
Part
Face/edge
What's the difference between component and part? The component filter will select the immediate children of the active assembly. Most often this will be sub-assemblies. the part filter will ignore all sub assemblies and select only parts no matter how deep in the assembly structure they are.
The new Part and Component filters will enable you to select two different parts and find the minimum distance between them. Something that can be very important to know when designing mechanisms.
The following Image shows the results of measuring the minimum distance between the two rollers. A great example where minimum distance is the only way to get the clearance between them!
Also posted to the mfgcommunity.autodesk.com tips section here.
0 Comment | Add CommentIn Ellipsis > Tips